Saskia Diez

Origin: 2006, Munich, Germany

Field: accessories and jewellery

Designer: Saskia Diez

Biography:

After completing her training as a goldsmith Saskia Diez decided to study industrial design. It was essentially coincidence that led her back to jewellery design. And you can clearly discern the perspective of design in her informal reduced products. With their clarity and intelligent simplicity they are truly captivating, playing with tradition and modernity, and citing the ‘zeitgeist’ without being trendy. They consciously challenge the principles according to which traditional jewellery pieces are made. Despite her serious reflected way of working, her designs are never lacking in poetry.

Style:

Saskia Diez draws the inspiration for her pieces from many different sources: People, pieces of clothing, materials or moods, from small everyday details. Sometimes it is even mistakes, minor inconsistencies that lead her to new ideas. Stimulated by such observations and associations, she searches for the right materials and combines the ideas with the symbolic content, the use and the function of the materials until something new emerges from them.

The Papier Bag:

Take up the familiar, give it further thought and add something new: a collaborative project between Saskia and the designer Stefan Diez, the “Papier” series is an experiment in revising the classical typology: the two designers have pointed out the basic requirements to a travel bag – durability, protection and light weight – and sought for an appropriate material other than the traditional choices of leather and reinforced textiles. The “Papier” bags are made of Tyvek®, a synthetic paper that is extremely lightweight – 135g for the bigger and 115g for the smaller bag – but at the same time exceptionally robust, both water-and tear-proof. The material is completely recyclable. Apart from that, one will appreciate the high-end finishes applied to such seemingly banal material as paper. Silkscreen printing techniques gives it a particularly attractive look. “Papier” won the German Designpreis 2010.

Jewellery:

BIG KNOT is inspired from historical motifs: The sterling silver chains are laced together to form striking knots, which in the precision of the work are reminiscent of ancient Chinese knots or the cord binding of decorative tassels. The knots in the BIG KNOT series are not only the dominant element of the pieces of jewelry, they also conceal an adjustment mechanism, with which the length of the chains can be varied.

The FINE collection consists out of simple basic items: the necklaces, bracelets, earrings and rings of the Fine series are made from two different kinds of chain-material in two different kinds of metal. One consisting of small cubic parts, one consisting of small rings either in sterling silver or 18karat gold. The closure of the necklaces and the bracelets is always the same, so one can put different necklaces and bracelets together to get longer necklaces consisting of different parts (in material and colour). The rings are flexible, little necklaces for your finger.